A Backyard Bonfire and New Year’s Mantras

10 January

Sunday afternoon I had some girlfriends over for a new year’s bonfire. A chance to get the gang back together post-holiday craze!… to finally burn some of the wood my grandparents recently hauled up for us, and to put our Barebones Living fire pit to use! The best $150 investment you could make for your backyard BTW. We’re super excited to make this a regular weekend thing around here. Also with all of the drizzly, overcast days we’ve been having there’s just nothing better sounding than gathering around a fire is there?

We bundled up in our coziest wears. Me in my favorite plaid layer. My girlfriends all in various monochrome shades (I didn’t even coordinate them!). I made a batch of mulled wine, pulled out an assortment of teas, and even attempted my first pot of fondue. Darrel Corti himself (of our neighborhood Sacramento grocery store: Corti Brothers) gave me his father, Frank’s, recipe–sounds super fancy of me but it was actually so easy to make and was such a hit. Recipe to come tomorrow!

I also had this idea to write our new year’s mantras on a piece of paper and to all toss them in the fire together, putting our intentions for the new year out into the world. I warned them that 2018 is the year I’m fully embracing my hippie side… and so now I’m warning you too. After placing our mantras in the fire together I then gave everyone a sage bundle to light. As you know I love sage bundles and burn them on the regular. So cleansing! There’s just something about getting a group of awesome girlfriends together… we were feeling all of the good energy feels!

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I was curious how cooking over the fire pit would go but the back of our Barebones cast iron dutch oven gives the exact charcoal to use for the temperature needed making it actually quite easy. I prepped all of the ingredients ahead of time and then slowly added the cheese in over the fire. The flavor produced by cast iron can’t be achieved by any other method and kept the fondue perfectly warm for the hours we were hanging out back.

For the mulled wine, I made Ina Garten’s recipe (found here) for the first time and it was yummy. Super cozy, and sure hit the spot on such a gray winter day.